Talks on Iran’s nuclear program to continue with participation of P5+1 political directors

LAUSANNE /Switzerland/, March 18. /TASS/. Talks on Iran’s nuclear program that have been held since Sunday in Lausanne by the US and Iranian delegations will become multilateral on Wednesday as the political directors of the six international negotiators will join the discussions.

The Russian delegation is led by Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov. The round is expected to end not earlier than Friday.

At a meeting in Vienna in November 2014, the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, and France plus Germany) and Tehran agreed to extend the deadline for an agreement in the talks on Iran’s nuclear program to June 30, 2015.

The agreement stipulated that by the end of March 2015, the sides planned to achieve a principled political decision regarding disputed issues.

Iran says it needs nuclear power to generate electricity, but Western powers led by the United States claim Tehran's eventual aim is to create nuclear weapons.